


Finding Touda

by Dancing Serpent (Phaeton), Nele



Series: Snakes on a Battleship [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yami No Matsuei
Genre: Crack, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:29:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phaeton/pseuds/Dancing%20Serpent, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nele/pseuds/Nele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Still under construction! More information, ratings and summary will follow later. And more parts, too. Might take a moment - authors live in different time zones.</p><p>Started as commentfic. May contain some attempts at seriousness, but no guarantees. -Nele</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Still under construction! More information, ratings and summary will follow later. And more parts, too. Might take a moment - authors live in different time zones.
> 
> Started as commentfic. May contain some attempts at seriousness, but no guarantees. -Nele

Once, as a young recruit, Lieutenant Jee came close to meeting a dragon. Close enough to get a sense of its inner fire – vibrant and powerful. A year later Prince Iroh killed the last one and turned dragons into nothing but legends told in the dark hours of night at sea.

But Jee never forgot, and it is that memory that makes him approach the dark clad stranger with caution and wonder, not hostility, despite the unfamiliar design of his metal armour and his sudden appearance.

Even banked by unconsciousness the man’s inner fire feels like that of a dragon.


	2. Chapter 2

He finds himself walking back in the direction of the ship with the stranger over his shoulder. It wasn't quite a conscious decision; he certainly wouldn't have picked up a random, possibly dangerous individual off a dark harbor street if he'd actually stopped to consider what his superior officers would say. What was he going to do, try to convince Zuko to allow him to keep this... man... in his cabin? The brat prince barely tolerated the ship's cat.

This is beyond all reason and logic. Still, Jee can't bring himself to put the man down and leave him curled up behind the minimal safety of a crate or barrel. The warmth of his skin _clings_ in some unnameable way, and he's oddly light, even though he looks to be easily as tall as Jee. He feels like he wants to be taken home.

Jee is walking up the gang plank before he's thought of a single thing to say, and of course Zuko is right there on deck, leaping and twisting his way through a firebending kata. He's obviously been at it for a while. There's a sheen of sweat accenting the movement of new muscles under the skin of his bare arms. _You have a long way to go, brat_ , Jee thinks as he shifts his grip on a hard thigh so broad that he probably couldn't encircle it with both hands.

The prince stops when he spots Jee, and his good eye widens a little before the ever-present frown takes over.

"What is _that?_ "

Zuko stalks over, and Jee lowers his burden to the deck and opens his mouth to say he doesn't even know what.

Then Zuko seems to freeze up entirely. He's so still that Jee can _see_ him suck in air and take in the still figure's inner flame. He wasn't wrong. There really is something odd, something old in there. Even Zuko can sense it, and he's far too young to ever have known what a dragon feels like.

"It's the Avatar," Zuko breathes.

Oh, by all misbegotten spirits.

"Sir, I don't believe..."

What he believes clearly isn't of any relevance, as usual. "Put him in the brig," Zuko snaps. His eyes scan the sprawled man's veiled face, the tall body in its strange black bounty hunter armor. "And make sure you chain him up well. Use extra irons," he adds.


	3. Chapter 3

'Are you serious? After two years of searching the whole world you think I of all people simply find the Avatar unconscious in some shady Earth Kingdom harbour on a night out drinking and fucking.' Jee can barely keep himself from blurting out the first thing that comes to his mind.

Out loud he says: “Sir, fire like that chained up in iron and surrounded by metal? He could melt the whole ship around us if he wanted to. I don’t think it wise to provoke him like that.”

It’s probably even true. A dragon’s breath of flame was certainly hot enough, or so legend says.

But that’s not the real reason. Lying on the deck, eyes hidden behind obsidian-black glass and for all Jee knows senseless to the world and to the men discussing his fate, the stranger looks oddly vulnerable. Jee is suddenly feeling curiously protective of him

Either way, he didn’t rescue a helpless man from possibly getting killed in a back alley only to hold him prisoner on the whims of a spoiled brat, royal prince and superior officer or not.

Zuko narrows his good eye and opens his mouth, and Jee fully expects the prince to scream insubordination at him, when a new voice cuts in.

“Nephew, Lieutenant, what is this commotion all about? You are waking the whole ship and the men need their rest. As do you. Why are you still up here?”

General Iroh, yawning and wearing sleeping robes. Jee allows himself a small sigh of relief. Here comes a voice of reason and a possible ally.

“Lieutenant Jee found the Avatar and refuses to throw him into the brig!”

The brat seems to vibrate with both indignation and excitement, and Jee can’t help rolling his eyes in exasperation. The general raises one doubtful eyebrow and meets his glance for a moment, before turning to the motionless body lying behind Jee.

And stops in stunned surprise, eyes glued to the stranger in obvious fascination.

“Oh! Oh, nephew, I don’t believe chaining him up is a good idea…”

“Nobody…” an unfamiliar voice suddenly growls, “nobody is going to put me in chains. Never again!”


End file.
